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A dual-boot PC is ideal for households that have serious gamers.
   technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Solving the Windows dilemma, Part 5: Install two operating systems


June 18, 2000

By Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2000, Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2000, The Syracuse Newspapers

   PCs normally have only one operating system. But computers with two operating systems are increasingly common these days. You can switch from one to the other just by rebooting.
   This is known as a dual-boot PC. The idea is simple. You want to switch to a new operating system but don't want to lose all the benefits of the old one. Instead of wiping everything out and starting out fresh, you simply add the other operating system to your PC. This takes more disk space -- after all, you're turning your PC's home into a duplex apartment, so to speak -- but newer computers usually have a lot of disk space anyway.
   Let's say you have Windows on your PC and you decide to install Linux or the Be operating system. (You've probably heard of Linux, but stay tuned if you want to know more about the Be operating system. It's very stable and easy to use. I'll be reporting on it soon.)
   You can install either of them without worrying about your Windows files. When you install the Be operating system or most versions of Linux, you'll get a choice. You can just wipe out Windows and all its files (tempting to some of us!) or you can install the new operating system alongside Windows.
   The dual boot can work by means of a menu or through a simple reminder on the screen. The menu is better, of course, but millions of Linux users are accustomed to the standard Linux method of a prompt on the screen. You type the name of the operating system you want to use and press the Enter key.
   That's it. Once you make that choice, your PC boots up normally. Both Linux and the Be operating system know how to recognize your Windows files, but they will not run your Windows programs. Keep this in mind. When you are running Linux or the Be operating system, you will be able to open all kinds of files you've stored on the Windows side of your system (in your Windows folders, in other words) -- graphics files, video clips, normal texts, MP3 files, WAV files and so on. But you won't be able to run the programs that are stored there.
   In other words, your dual-boot PC is not magically able to split its brain. It's not a two-headed monster. It's just a Windows PC part of the time and another kind of PC the rest of the time.
   To run Windows or the programs that are stored on the Windows side of the system, you reboot and choose Windows. To run Linux or Linux programs or Be and its programs, you reboot and choose Linux or Be.
   A dual-boot PC is ideal for households that have serious gamers. Kids could boot up into Windows for all the great Windows games and then boot back up into Linux or the Be operating system when they want to run Napster or get onto the Web. (Both Linux and Be have their own versions of Napster, and both of them can create and play MP3 audio files better than Windows can.)
   The grownups in the family could take the same approach -- Windows for the Quicken financial software, for example (neither Linux nor Be has anything as good as Quicken) and Linux or the Be operating system for e-mail, Web browsing and serious office-at-home stuff.
   I've been running a dual-boot PC for more than a year. I decided to install Linux on my main PC in the spring of 1999. I carefully backed up every single item on my hard drives, worried that I would end up losing everything. I installed Linux and made sure the dual-boot part worked right.
   For the first few months I spent most of my time on the Windows side of the fence. I was familiar with Windows and found Linux hard to learn in many ways.
   But anything that is both new and different is likely to be hard to learn. After six months I realized I was running Linux most of the time. After a year, it was clear that Windows had a definite place on my main PC, but it was a secondary place. By doing all my writing, e-mail and Web browsing under Linux, I have been able to get a lot more done -- Linux just runs and runs without crashing or running out of memory -- and I've been able to squeeze out more time for a family life.
   The last time I booted up into Windows was around Christmas. I need Windows to extract digital video from my camcorder (there's a Be operating system program that will do it, but no Linux software yet), but that's about it, since I don't play any Windows games.